JCMR Launches Eye-Tracking Solution

Japan Consumer Marketing Research Institute (JCMR), which provides marketing services based on lifestyle research, has announced that it will launch its JCMR Eye-Tracking Solution service for evaluating company marketing effectiveness through the use of eye tracking technology. The company has a goal of acquiring 30 customer businesses in its first fiscal year.

JCMR Eye-Tracking Solution combines an eye tracking device developed by Tobii (Sweden) and software jointly developed by Eyetools (U.S.) and Tobii. It is the first service of its kind in Japan to be used in marketing applications. This service will enable company marketing directors, advertising divisions, advertising companies, and web developers to gain an objective and accurate assessment of where consumers are visually attracted to information in advertisements and web sites.

"With the ever evolving Eye-Tracking technology, we are able to directly observe and record how the eyes of a consumer move when viewing a web site, product package, TV commercial, and print media," commented Richard F. May of JCMR. "Insight into consumer psychology derived from such research has helped advertisers deepen their understanding of their target consumers, which is beneficial in creating effective marketing methods."

The Eye-Trackers camera used in the JCMR Eye-Tracking Solution does not require any sort of special head gear be worn by the consumer being tested and can track of the human eye to a high degree of accuracy (typically to within 1 cm of movement on a normal computer screen), which gives insight into eye movement and where attention is being focused.

The conventional method used by marketing directors to determine the effectiveness of company web sites and advertisements relies on subjective methods such as interviews with consumers. But eye-tracking provides an objective and quick method that is based on actual data. In the U.S., leading IT companies, such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and eBay, and many consumer product manufacturers have already used this tool to produce positive results.

For an overview on Eye-Tracking and examples of marketing applications, please refer to the article "Eye of the Buyer" (www.jmrlsi.co.jp/english/eyetools/ACCJ_Journal.pdf) that appeared in ACCJ Journal, a monthly publication of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ).

JCMR Eye-Tracking Solutions is useful for a variety of marketing applications, including improving Web usability and evaluating product packaging and advertisements. By measuring the order in which various items are viewed and for how long, company web developers can determine the parts of pages that are viewed or scanned by site visitors and access whether information the company believes to be most important is actually being read. By making measurements before and after web site updates, the effectiveness of an update can be evaluated and an index generated for further improvements.

In the same way, by tracking consumer eye movement when product packaging and magazine advertisements are being viewed, designers can confirm whether product names, brand names, and key catch words are being noticed, which is helpful in creating package designs that stand out from competitors offerings and advertisements that spark a desire to purchase.

Customer Evaluations"We realized that our designs lacked the impact of our competitors. By changing key product words and their placement on packages, there was an increase in the frequency of our items being handled by customers in stores." (Manager of leading confectionery manufacturer)

"We realized that the line of sight of users was being scattered. After updating our web site by emphasizing portions we wanted viewed, we saw a 69% increase in the number of accesses compared to before the update." (Section manager of e-commerce company)

"We realized that our old magazine advertisements didn't have enough eye-catching areas. After making some design changes based on insight gained using eye-tracking, our inquiries more than doubled." (Advertising manager of leading cosmetics manufacturer)

In conjunction with the JCMR Eye-Tracking Solution, JCMR is currently developing a new service based on research of fundamental psychological and perception theory designed to help this tool to be used even more effectively. The latest information on tools and research related to this service can be found at http://www.jmrlsi.co.jp/english/eyetools/prom01.html.

About Japan Consumer Marketing Research Institute Japan Consumer Marketing Research Institute (JCMR) is a leader in the fields of marketing research, marketing planning, and management strategy in Japan. The company has recently extended its activities into the rest of Asia and to working with U.S. and European firms to assist them in planning their overseas marketing strategies. Leveraging its years of experience and a first-class research staff, JCMR strives to work together with clients on projects of vital importance in today's consumer economy.